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Poulder is round-faced, ruddy-skinned man, with a tremendous set of moustaches. His hair is often in carefully arranged disarray, with the top button of his uniform heedlessly undone, to match his casual and lounging manner.

Poulder is quite a competent General, with a flamboyant style and known for his fabled cavalry charges. He's arrogant and self-aggrandizing. He has a bitter rivalry with the by-the-book General Kroy, disagreeing over every subject, no matter how small; sometimes even agreeing with his superiors merely to spite him. His behaviour is actually precisely the same as Kroy, as if they were two sides of a single character.

Poulder was one of the leading candidates for the open position of Lord Marshal, supported by his old friend of Arch Lector Sult. However, the Closed Council could not agree, and eventually settled on Burr as a compromise.

General Poulder and Union Army arrive in Angland to bring Bethod, the King of the Northmen, to heel in the First Northern War. At a meeting of the command staff, Lord Marshal Burr outlines the strategy that will split the army into three commands, two to flush Bethod onto the field of battle, and one to guard their retreat led by Prince Ladisla. The Generals and their flunkies seem far more concerned with petty rivalries than with the war to come. Meanwhile, Burr tries to manage his subordinates mutual hostility, by favouring neither.

However, Bethod’s main force eludes Burr, and head directly south to crush Prince Ladisla's division. Meanwhile, Poulder and Kroy are kept busy with small bands of raiders and the freezing Angland winter.

Finally, thanks to scouting by a crew of rebel Northmen, the Union manages to draw the Northmen into open battle near Dunbrec. General Poulder is ordered to take his division through the forests on the northern ridge, and take Bethod's army in the flank, once General Kroy has committed them to battle. However, deployed for battle, they are attacked through the forest by hordes of Shanka. Unable to assist Kroy, Poulder barely manages to force the Shanka to retreat.

The battle ends in a Union victory, but barely. Afterwards, Poulder and Kroy return to Burr’s command post, bickering for the infirm Lord Marshal’s favour over whose failure endangered the battle; unaware that Burr had been incapacitated during the fighting.

Having pushed Bethod’s army out of Angland, General Poulder is ordered to capture the city of Uffrith in The North, an important port to bring in men and supplies. Although he tries to claim the credit himself, it is actually seized by the rebel Northmen alone, led by Dogman.

Eventually, Dogman comes up with a plan to use Bethod's hatred for the rebel Northmen, to lure him into a trap in the High Places, while the Union Army flank them. However, just as the army is prepared to spring the trap, Burr is found dead in his tent from his gut-rot. No soon have Poulder and Kroy paid their respects over the Lord Marshal’s coffin, than the pair begin planning life after Burr. Of course, they cannot advance until the King has appointed a new Lord Marshal.

A week later, Poulder and Kroy are left sputtering, when Colonel West is appointed Lord Marshal, thanks to his friendship with new King Jezal. Lord Marshal West quickly puts Poulder and Kroy in their place, which somehow allows a sort of respect to grow between the pair. Poulder's division is ordered to accompany West north to relieve the rebel Northmen. Approaching the High Places, they see that after seven days of bloody siege the rebel Northmen are still holding against Bethod. West orders Poulders' weary cavalry to immediately charge, and they manage to rout Bethod in a costly but decisive victory.

After Bethod's final defeat in Carleon, the Union Army is immediately ordered back to Midderland to lift the siege of Adua by the Gurkish. General Poulder’s men are ordered to approach the city from the southeast; first to clear the docks and then push north to the Agriont. However, on the day of battle, Poulder is unable to resist prematurely ordering one of his fabled cavalry charges, having been frustrated by the harsh terrain in The North. Gerneral Poulder dies at the front of his bold charge.